Originally Posted by 'Kaelika',index.php?page=Thread&postID=191523#post 191523
I've never been a huge fan of WoW; in fact, I initially started playing it at launch because my brother bought me a copy. (I had purchased myself a copy of EQ2 right before this, and even though I liked the game, I had no one to play it with, and didn't want to have to start forming new relationships.) At the time, I was still playing SWG, which I ended up playing alongside WoW since I didn't want to quit. When SWG was obliterated by SOE (April of '05), I quickly made the transition to playing only WoW since my SWG guild and practically every other friend I had was now playing it (WoW).
What does this have to do with multi-boxing? Simple: I ended up multi-boxing in WoW not because I loved the game as so many other people seem to, but because practically everyone I knew was playing it.
One day in '06 I accidentally booted up a second client, and I was shocked to see that it actually ran. After alt-tabbing between the windows, I learned that it could be advantageous if I learned to maximize my proficiency with this new technique that I had acquired. So I bought a second copy of the game and rolled two new characters together -- a mage and a paladin. When someone in-game said, "Oh, you're two-boxing!" I responded with, "So that's what it's called?" I didn't use any intricate macros; I didn't use any key-repeating software -- I did it the hard way. I enjoyed the challenge, however, and so, at least for a little while, WoW was actually fun to play.
Once I was decent enough to actually bring my second character along in instances, I started to wonder if I could dual-box in any other games. I remembered how enjoyable my experience was when trying EQ2 at launch, so I decided that if I could play two characters in EQ2, maybe I wouldn't have to worry about bringing a friend along. I rolled a berserker and a templar so that I would be the cornerstone of any group and wouldn't have to spend a lot of time begging people to run dungeons with me. It would have worked out if not for the fact that my computer sucked and I was getting an average of 4 FPS. In the end, I accepted that it would be impossible to multi-box EQ2 until I replaced my computer.
By the time I actually did upgrade to a new computer, I felt that I had invested far too much into WoW both time-wise and socially. I didn't want to leave behind all of the characters I had acculmulated over the years. This continued until November of last year when I finally managed to convince my best friend to dual-box while I triple-boxed. At first it was a bit difficult to figure out how to set up all of the software and macros that were necessary. (Two-boxing and three-boxing, I discovered, were drastically different from each other.) Everything worked out flawlessly -- he actually enjoyed it and we managed to complete more content than either of us ever thought we could manage.
I don't need place emphasis on the fact that WoW's paltry system requirements make it incredibly easy to run five instances of WoW on the same computer -- and I only needed three, so I was in good shape. But I recenlty upgraded my computer hardware again, and since WoW is going in a direction that I'm unhappy with, I took this opportunity to finally leave so that I could play a game I truly enjoy rather than playing something just because my friends do, and I have no regrets about leaving. Yeah, there were some hard feelings, but I convinced my best friend to again come with me so that we can multi-box together.
This time, I don't think I'll ever go back to WoW unless some major changes are implemented (the game feels like it did pre-TBC now, which renders five-boxing to be nearly useless as far as I'm concerned, and the acquisition of PvP gear through raiding, which is nothing new, I know, but it only serves to exacerbate my ever-increasing negativity towards the game), which could be never, and I'm really apathetic in any case, so it doesn't matter.
In conclusion, I'm not a huge fan of WoW, and now that I've acquired the ability move beyond just dual-boxing (I know that I could five/six-box now if I had to), I intend to play some of the other games that appeal to me as well. I just didn't have the processing power to do it before.
EDIT:
So, to directly address your question in a concise manner, it's not WoW itself; rather, it's the enjoyment factor/the ability to multi-box a game that determines whether or not I'll play it. Meaning, I consider myself to be a gamer and not a WoW-player.
